By Pallas Ziebarth, staff writer
Last Wednesday, two little visitors tumbled onto the Fountain Valley campus: four-month-old Alexa Gruca, daughter of Todd Gruca, an English teacher at FVHS, and thirteen-month-old Will Attreed, son of Annalise Attreed, also an English teacher currently on leave.
The toddlers visited to be observed by the students in Cori Brooks’ Child Development class. Students began the year-long class learning about children first from books, then by carrying plastic babies around campus. On Wednesday they had a chance to observe and interact with real children.
“Its a great way to learn about yourself at an age where at a lot of times we don’t really get an opportunity to do something like that,” Brooks said.
The students sat silently on stools in room 236 observing the children, watching their every move. As they watched, they took notes. Using a handout, they noted the babies’ names, toys, diet and tracked their actions.
“For their temperament we just say how they react to things and if they’re like angry or mad or like happy,” said Ahmad Sepehrnia (‘16).
The students couldn’t help laughing as Will waddled around the classroom, all smiles, a tennis ball clutched in his hand. He grunted as he made his way across the room towards Mrs. Brooks’ desk.
In his excitement, he flailed his arms and dropped the ball. Tears streamed down little Will’s cheeks and his mother arrived to help. With pencils in hand, they quickly wrote down what was happening and asked the mother questions.
“I did expect him to cry for attention. When his mom gave him attention, he stopped crying,” Abe Nguyen (‘15) stated.
After receiving a few reassuring words and book from his mother, Will happily flipped through its pages, talking to himself.
When asked what advice she’d give about parenting, Attreed said, “Just be open to learning a lot… just be flexible and stay away from ‘Dr. Google.’”
Students in the class don’t solely learn about being parents; they also learn to better understand their own parents and discover possible jobs dealing with children.
“We do focus on looking at career opportunities so anything from teaching to daycare-type workers, preschool, pediatric medicines all sorts of social work so its a good opportunity to get exposed to careers with children and lots of different capacities especially as high schoolers,” Brooks said.
